Poor countries need Sh88 trillion for power access

        Dar es Salaam. The Least Developed Countries (LDCs), including Tanzania, need $40 billion (about Sh88 trillion) per year to achieve sustainable access to power to all, a new report reveals.

The Least Developed Countries Report, 2017 entitled “Transformational Energy Access” launched yesterday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), also indicates that 82 per cent of people in rural areas in LDCs have no access to electricity.

Addressing the delegates during the launch of the report, Mr Giovanni Valensisi from UNCTAD called upon governments to strengthen electricity systems by scaling-up and upgrading the grid to ensure sustainable access to electricity.

Mr Valensisi also revealed that the achievement to have universal access to electricity should be backed up by effective utilisation of the potential energy resources.

He further commented that the governments were yet to exploit the resources adequately to generate power.

“Access to modern energy plays a major role in economic structural transformation. More investment is needed to achieve sustainable power supply,” he said.

For his part, resident coordinator of the United Nations Systems in Tanzania Alvaro Rodriguez said “It is high time for the governments in the LDCs, including Tanzania to make serious efforts to achieve transformational energy access by 2030.”

The LDC reports, which are prepared annually by the UNCTAD, provides a comprehensive source of socio-economic analysis and data on the World’s most impoverished countries.

The report looks at how the World’s 47 least developed nations, including Tanzania can expand access to adequate, reliable and affordable sources of modern energy to escape the poverty trap.